Tatarstan 'unpacks' second package of assistance to small and medium-sized businesses

Delivery for catering and subsidised loans

As Economy Minister Midkhat Shagiakhmetov said at a briefing in the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan, the programmes of subsidising loans to businesses from the most affected industries and reimbursing the cost of food delivery, which became popular during the pandemic and coronavirus restrictions, will continue in 2021.

“We constantly work on improving the existing business support programmes," Shagiakhmetov said. “During the pandemic, the programmes such as subsidising the interest rate on existing business loans and 100% subsidising the costs associated with paying for food delivery services have shown high demand. This year, it has been decided to continue these projects.”

In particular, under the interest rate subsidy programme, the amount of funding will be at the level of 2020. The programme is targeted and gives the opportunity, according to the minister, to support entrepreneurs from the real sector of the economy: SMEs that operate in agriculture, manufacturing, construction, management of industrial parks, residents of these industrial parks, export-oriented business entities, and so on.

The budget of the programme to subsidise the cost of catering for food delivery will be doubled:

“Due to the preservation of a number of restrictions and the request of entrepreneurs in the field of public catering, we have decided to extend this programme. SMEs can expect to be compensated for the costs associated with the commission costs of delivery services from 1 October 2020 to 1 October 2021," Midkhat Shagiakhmetov announced.

Rates on preferential microloans reduced to 5%

Since June 2021, the ministry of economy of the Republic of Tatarstan has reduced the preferential rate on microloans for the self-employed and under the Perezagruzka programme for all entrepreneurs — to the size of the Central Bank's key rate, that is, up to 5%. According to Shagiakhmetov, since the beginning of 2021, businesses have already received borrowed funds in the amount of more than 350 million rubles under the microfinance programme in Tatarstan. The current portfolio since the beginning of the implementation of this programme is more than 2 billion rubles. The most popular among entrepreneurs and businesses are microloans under Perezagruzka programme, which provide for the possibility of obtaining a loan for all categories of SMEs in the real sector of the economy. These loans are issued at any reasonable cost to the borrower.

“This year, in order to increase the availability of concessional financing, from June 1, the maximum interest rate on loans under the Perezagruzka programme has been reduced from 6% to the size of the Central Bank's key rate. We have made a similar reduction in the rate under the self-employed programme," Shagiakhmetov said.

Since the president of Russia has set the task of increasing real exports of non-primary goods by 70% by 2030 (compared to 2020), the authorities of Tatarstan will continue to provide the microfinance product Exporter: the loan amount is up to 5 million rubles for a period of up to two years with an interest rate of 0,1% to the size of the key rate of the Central Bank. Another product — Social Entrepreneur — is aimed at helping businesses focused on solving social problems: they can get from 350,000 to 5 million rubles for a period of three to 24 months at a rate of 0,5% to the size of the Central Bank's key rate, depending on the availability of collateral.

The ministry of economy is also developing a service for accounting for those entrepreneurs who are switching from the cancelled UTII regime to simplified accounting. From 1 July, the ministry will provide patent search services to check the novelty of a technical solution. A new measure has been developed for social entrepreneurs (the amounts will be issued presumably in the amount of 100 to 500 thousand rubles). Finally, the preparation of documents for the new programme of support for the self-employed is being completed, grants will be issued from 100,000 rubles.

Businesses have been helped to attract 4 billion rubles since the beginning of the year

The minister also said that since the beginning of 2021, the Guarantee Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan, which issues guarantees for business obligations to credit, leasing, and other companies (up to 50 million rubles — to those SMEs that do not have the necessary collateral), has already issued guarantees for 640 million rubles. In total, Tatarstan businesses have received loans worth 4 billion rubles under these guarantees in 2021. Since the beginning of the work of the Guarantee Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan, loans have been received under its guarantees for 18 billion rubles.

The Regional Leasing Company established in 2017, which is supposed to help SMEs with the purchase of equipment (6-percent loans are issued for the purchase of Russian equipment, 8-percent — for the purchase of foreign equipment: the amount of financing is from 500 thousand to 50 million rubles), has issued loans in the amount of more than 2,6 billion rubles to date.

In addition to the republican measures, the implementation of federal ones continues: from 9 March 2021, a new preferential programme for lending to affected industries was launched to preserve employment at 3% per annum. Currently, more than 1,3 billion rubles of loans have been issued to entrepreneurs under the FOT 3.0 programme. The FOT 2.0 will continue until the end of July 2021.

“The goal is to increase the number of residents in such parks by the end of 2021"

The government of Tatarstan will start supporting residents of industrial parks with less than 70% utilisation. The ministry of economy of the Republic of Tatarstan recognised the existence of a number of problems with some industrial parks that remain underutilised, and whose residents are deprived of state federal support.

According to Shagiakhmetov, the government of the Republic of Tatarstan has adopted a number of legislative initiatives that open special tax benefits to residents of such parks for 10 years, including reducing the rates under the simplified taxation, exemption from paying transport tax and corporate property tax. To take advantage of these benefits, entrepreneurs need to enter into an agreement with the ministry of economy of the Republic of Tatarstan to carry out activities on the territory of an industrial park accredited by the ministry. Other criteria (in addition to the low occupancy rate of the park — less than 70%): the company pays taxes to the budget of Tatarstan, is a subject of SMEs.

“In addition to tax preferences, a package of support measures has been developed for residents of industrial parks, including subsidising the interest rate, providing a loan to Stroika — it starts this month," Shagiakhmetov said.

Now there are 105 parks in Tatarstan, where more than 1,500 residents work, the number of employees at their enterprises is already about 34,500 people. According to the minister of economy, there are districts of Tatarstan, where there are from three to five parks and each of them is occupied in different ways. The ministry monitors each industrial park today and sees their problems, Shagiakhmetov assured. It was at the request of the management companies of industrial parks that a new package of support measures appeared.

“The goal is to increase the number of residents in such parks by the end of 2021. We have only 18 industrial parks with state funding. We exempt the parks that have not received state funding from taxes and are making a package of support measures for residents. In Aktanysh, we know the situation. Unfortunately, there is no federal funding for industrial parks yet. This programme operates only in 10 regions of Russia with low socio-economic development. There was no such criterion before," the minister said.

According to Midkhat Shagiakhmetov, in general, the dynamics of the recovery of small business activity in 2021 is positive. So, if we take the number of employees, then SMEs managed to maintain the number of employees, and in 2021, in 4 months, their number even began to grow. The number of individual entrepreneurs from the beginning of the year to 1 May increased by 3%, amounting to 158,000 subjects. At the moment, more than 658,000 people are employed in the field of SMEs, which is a third of those employed in the economy of Tatarstan.